DMITRY KAPITANOV, 30, didn't need to run away to join the circus; in Russia, where he grew up, talented children were supported as they prepared for a chance at stardom. “When I was ten years old I was already attending a circus studio,” he says. “In a year they included me in the professional team as a magician.”

This meant that for the next ten years Kapitanov had to juggle his education around the demands of tours to cities across Russia, but despite the difficulties it's not an experience he regrets. Indeed, in many ways it continues to shape the course of his life; he's now studying for an MBA at IESE in Barcelona but plans to return to work at the Russian State Circus Company when he qualifies. “I am really attached to the circus since it started in my early childhood and has been with me for my whole life,” he says.

On the other hand, he will not be using his MBA to help him to saw his assistants in half. About ten years ago, Kapitanov's manager suggested that he expand his involvement from the ring to some of the circus's commercial aspects. He took on photography - visitors getting their pictures taken with performers is a big draw - and his became the first circus to bring digital technology into play.

“I largely focused on the technological and logistical aspects ... to improve the speed because the people who come to the show want their photos by the end of the show.” The demands of business meant that he cut back the number of performances that he gave, eventually leaving the sawdust behind entirely four years ago.

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His commercial efforts helped to improve sales and attendance and showed him how improving his business knowledge could help him to improve the company. “It crystallised in the idea that I can do something on a larger level for the circus in Russia,” he says. “The circus industry which was left from the Soviet times ... is maybe not that efficient right now, so it needs to be changed.”

Kapitanov says that the Government had been considering closing the company down and using its 42 buildings across Russia as trade centres or casinos, but instead it hired a new director-general to revamp it and resurrect its popularity. This is where the former magician hopes that his new skills will fit in: “He [the director-general] needs more people with a really good business education and the credentials of an MBA.”

He is only partway through a two-year course - he spoke to Career in a break between his finance exams - but has already been learning techniques that he plans to apply to the circus. “I already have a few ideas to propose to my director and when we have the summer break from the MBA I will try to communicate some of those ideas,” he says. “For example, we've just finished a course on competitive strategy and many things that before I intuitively thought about [while working] have been crystallised here in a mathematical model.”

While many people take on MBAs as a way of changing careers, Kapitanov can't imagine leaving the circus behind. “Of course [a new job] can be an option, but the circus is my top priority. Even if I end up being a consultant or working somewhere else I will still be trying to help the circus ... I will always find time in my life. I have a lot of friends in the circus. We are like family and you always want to do good things for your family.”

He also found ways to bring a touch of magic into the academic surrounds of the business school - producing scarves from the ears of surprised professors and so forth - but he hasn't yet had the chance to visit a circus in Spain. He'd planned to see Cirque du Soleil but the show sold out fast and he missed out on tickets. “Besides,” he adds ruefully, “the MBA programme is really tough and I don't have that much spare time.”

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